Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,390 CRASHES IN
AUSTIN, TX
MAY 2016

All metrics benchmarked againstMay 2015

In May 2016, Austin recorded 1,390 vehicle crashes, an 8.3% increase from the 1,284 crashes reported in May 2015. Despite the rise in total collisions and a slight increase in injuries from 888 to 912, the number of fatalities decreased from 9 to 7 year-over-year. One of the most notable changes was the shift in the peak day for crashes, which moved from Friday in the prior year to Monday in the current period.

1,390

8.3%was 1,284

Total Crash Events

7

-22.2%was 9

Persons Killed

912

2.7%was 888

Persons Injured

7

-12.5%was 8

Fatal Crash Events

Note: "Persons Killed" (7) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (7) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Year-over-year data for May indicates a rising trend in the total number of crashes, which increased by 8.3% from 1,284 in 2015 to 1,390 in 2016. The number of injuries also saw a slight increase of 2.7%, rising from 888 to 912. However, fatalities ran counter to this trend, decreasing from 9 in the prior year to 7 in the current period.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

4

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 333.3%

3

Motorists Killed

Prior: 5-40.0%

0

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 00.0%

0

Motorists Injured

Prior: 00.0%

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The temporal patterns of crashes showed a notable shift between May 2015 and May 2016. While the 5 p.m. hour remained the peak time for collisions in both years, the peak day for crashes moved from Friday (258 crashes) in 2015 to Monday (222 crashes) in 2016. This change was driven by a significant increase in Monday collisions, which rose from 141 in the prior year, and a decrease in Friday collisions from their previous peak.

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Crash Severity Breakdown

The overall severity of crashes shifted slightly year-over-year, with the fatal crash rate decreasing from 0.62% of all crashes in May 2015 to 0.50% in May 2016. While the proportion of serious injury crashes remained stable at 3.2%, there was a noticeable change in other injury categories. The share of crashes involving minor injuries decreased from 21.0% to 16.2%, while crashes with possible injuries increased from 21.8% to 25.6%.

Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)

Fatal7fatal crashes0.5%
-12.5%prior 8
Serious Injury45serious injury crashes3.2%
9.8%prior 41
Minor Injury225minor injury crashes16.2%
-16.4%prior 269
Possible Injury356possible injury crashes25.6%
27.1%prior 280
Injury105minor injury crashes7.6%
36.4%prior 77
No Injury652no injury crashes46.9%
7.1%prior 609

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · KABCO injury classification scale

Severity Distribution (Crash Events)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · Most severe injury per crash record

Speed Limit Zones

A comparison of crashes by posted speed limit shows a slight increase in collisions in lower-speed zones (35 mph or less), rising from 377 to 401 year-over-year. Crashes in mid-range speed zones (40-55 mph) saw a small decrease from 473 to 457. There was a significant shift in where fatal crashes occurred; in May 2015, five of the eight fatal crashes with recorded speed limits occurred in 40-55 mph zones. In May 2016, zones with speed limits of 60 mph or higher accounted for two fatal crashes, up from zero in the prior period.

Fatal crashes by zone: 25 mph: 1 of 26 (3.846%) · 30 mph: 1 of 145 (0.69%) · 35 mph: 1 of 217 (0.461%) · 45 mph: 1 of 144 (0.694%) · 60 mph: 2 of 58 (3.448%)

Source: Austin Crash Reports · Socrata Open Data · 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from Austin Crash Reports (https://data.austintexas.gov/d/y2wy-tgr5), accessed programmatically via the Socrata Open Data API (SODA). This dataset contains official police-reported motor vehicle traffic crash records maintained by the reporting jurisdiction's law enforcement agency. Records are published to the open data portal by the municipality and are subject to the portal's terms of use.

Data Retrieval

  • Access method: Socrata Open Data API (SoQL queries)
  • Dataset URL: https://data.austintexas.gov/d/y2wy-tgr5
  • Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
  • Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
  • Date filter applied: 2016-05-01 through 2016-05-31
  • Report generated: July 6, 2026

Data Coverage

  • Reporting period: 2016-05-01 through 2016-05-31 (31 days)
  • Geographic scope: Austin, TX
  • Total crash records analyzed: 1,390

Analytical Methodology

  • Severity classification: Uses the KABCO injury scale (K=Fatal, A=Incapacitating injury, B=Non-incapacitating injury, C=Possible injury, O=No injury/property damage only), the standard classification in U.S. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Severity is assigned per crash event based on the most severe injury in that crash. A single fatal crash (K) may involve multiple fatalities; therefore the "Persons Killed" count in the headline KPIs may differ from the "Fatal" crash count in the severity breakdown.
  • Contributing factors: Reflect the officer-determined primary contributory cause recorded at the time of the crash report. These are preliminary determinations and may not reflect final investigation findings.
  • Hit-and-run classification: Based on the hit-and-run indicator field in the official crash report, as determined by the responding officer at the scene.
  • Temporal analysis: Day-of-week and hour-of-day distributions are computed from the crash date/time timestamp in each record.
  • Demographics: Age and sex distributions are drawn from person-level records linked to each crash event. A single crash may involve multiple persons.
  • Vehicle data: Make information is drawn from vehicle unit records linked to each crash event.
  • AI commentary: Narrative sections are generated by Google Gemini (large language model) based on the structured data. Commentary is descriptive, not predictive, and should not be interpreted as expert opinion.

Limitations & Disclaimers

  • Only crashes reported to and documented by law enforcement are included. Minor incidents, unreported crashes, and near-misses are not captured in this dataset.
  • Data reflects conditions at the time of the initial police report and may be subject to subsequent corrections, reclassifications, or supplements by the reporting agency.
  • Open data portal records may experience a publication lag - recently occurring crashes may not yet appear in the dataset at the time of report generation.
  • AI-generated commentary is produced by a large language model and is intended to highlight patterns in the data. It does not constitute legal, medical, or professional analysis.
  • Percentages are calculated from reported data and are subject to rounding.

Non-Affiliation Disclosure

This report is produced independently by ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with any law enforcement agency, municipal government, state department of transportation, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data is sourced from publicly available government open data portals.

Data License

The underlying crash data is provided under the municipality's Open Data Terms of Use and is made available to the public for unrestricted use. This analysis and report is © 2026 Injuria.ai and may be cited with attribution using the suggested citation below.

Corrections & Feedback

If you believe any data in this report is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact: data@injuria.ai. We are committed to accuracy and will issue corrections promptly.

Suggested Citation

ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). "Austin, TX Crash Intelligence Report: May 2016." Published July 6, 2026. Reporting period: 2016-05-01 to 2016-05-31. Data source: Austin Crash Reports, Socrata Open Data. Dataset: https://data.austintexas.gov/d/y2wy-tgr5. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/texas/austin/may-2016-report

About the Publisher

ThatCarHitMe.com is a crash data intelligence platform developed by Injuria.ai, a legal technology company specializing in traffic safety analytics. We aggregate and analyze publicly available government crash data to produce structured intelligence reports for communities, researchers, journalists, and legal professionals. Our reports combine programmatic data retrieval from official open data portals with AI-assisted narrative analysis.

Questions about this report's data or methodology: data@injuria.ai

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Austin, TX Crash Report — May 2016 | ThatCarHitMe.com